The present disclosure relates to a method of controlling a magnetization state, and in particular, to a simple method of controlling a magnetization state using an imprinting technique.
Recently, due to the rapid development of the information industry, there is a continuing demand for a magnetic storage medium, whose memory capacity is larger than those of conventional magnetic storage media. Accordingly, fine patterns exhibiting electrical conductivity or magnetism based on magnetoresistance may be used for the magnetoresistive film and the magnetic storage medium, and in this case, it may be possible to reduce electric resistance of a device and to increase intensities of reproduction signals to be output from a magnetoresistive-type head.
In such a magnetic storage medium, a size of unit cells or a distance between the unit cells should be reduced to increase an amount of data stored in a given space. However, according to the prior art, it is difficult to reduce such a size or distance. In addition, when it exceeds a certain limit, it becomes difficult to stably store data.
Furthermore, to realize a magnetic storage medium with large capacity, stable writing and good data retention characteristics, a magnetic layer on a substrate may be patterned in the form of a patterned media including a plurality of magnetic patterns, which are physically separated from each other by a specific distance or pitch, and each of which is used to store a one bit, which is the smallest data unit. However, to form the patterned media on the substrate, it is necessary to perform a complex fabrication process including a mask pattern forming step, an etching step, a filling step, and so forth, and the complex fabrication process leads to an increase in the number of defects. Furthermore, in the case where the etching and filling steps are performed on a magnetic layer, the magnetic layer may have an uneven surface, and thus, a planarization process may be further needed. This may further increase the complexity in the fabrication process.